Dr. K, who said he closely knows the Lindsay Clancy case, explained the chilling realities experienced by patients with psychosis.
Addressing a trial that shocked the nation, the psychiatrist spoke about the extreme cases of psychosis that push patients to do unimaginable things.
He shared the disturbing examples while speaking on YouTuber Chris Williamson’s podcast Modern Wisdom.
Highlights
- Addressing the Lindsay Clancy case that shocked the nation, Dr. K explained the disturbing realities of people with psychosis.
- The psychiatrist shared his own experiences of dealing with patients, who are pushed to jump out of windows or harm even the people they love.
- He also spoke about thousands of mothers defending Lindsay and why men are breaking up with them because of it.
Dr. K explained the chilling realities experienced by patients with psychosis
Trigger warning: This article contains graphic details that may be distressing to some.
In light of Lindsay Clancy’s trial ending in a mistrial on Friday, psychiatrist Dr. Alok Kanojia spoke about the case from a psychiatrist’s perspective. Better known as Dr. K, he frequently discusses mental health topics and addressed the Lindsay Clancy case.
Even though he has never treated her, he has walked through the exact corridors of Massachusetts General Hospital, where Lindsay Clancy went to the emergency room in December 2022 after having persistent thoughts of ending her life.
He has also worked at McLean Hospital, where Lindsay had checked herself into an inpatient program, weeks before she strangled her three children Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan. She then jumped out of a second-story window in an apparent attempt to end her own life.
Her then-husband, Patrick Clancy, was out grabbing takeout food and a child laxative at the time.
Speaking on the Modern Wisdom podcast, Dr. K said the incident is “tearing apart couples,” because thousands of women are supporting Linsday while their male partners might not fully understand it.
Many women have even donated money to the accused mother, who was charged with three counts of m**der for her actions.
Thousands of mothers feel empathy for Lindsay Clancy and donated money to support her
“People are breaking up over this… A lot of people are really upset at the women for supporting Lindsay and not considering the kids,” he said.
“The basic issue here is a lack of understanding… I don’t think men or even society as a whole understands how hard pregnancy and the postpartum period is,” he continued.
Dr. K explained that countless women are showing support for Lindsay because they have navigated the postpartum period as well, which can include severe sleep deprivation, massive hormonal drops, and intrusive thoughts.
“So many women have had such terrible postpartum experiences, including struggling with thoughts of s**cide or eve k**ling their own kids,” he said.
Dr. K explained why men and women may see the case differently and be pushed to breaking up because they don't see eye-to-eye
Women are supporting her because “they know what it’s like and they know how dangerously close they came to succumbing to this.”
Dr. K tackled the big question bothering so many people with regards to Lindsay’s case: how can someone support a woman who strangles their own kids.
He explained that it comes down to a complete misunderstanding of what psychosis actually is.
Most people judge what happened, assuming that Lindsay was in her right mind and could have only acted like this if she had evil or malicious intentions. But severe psychosis completely wipes out a person's ability to think rationally.
He also explained that people think postpartum psychosis is rare because it unfolds behind closed doors, but actually, it’s more common than people think.
“People are experiencing postpartum psychosis every day… It’s actually quite common,” he said.
It is believed that out of every 1,000 births, postpartum psychosis affects between 0.089 and 2.6 of them, according to estimates by experts. This means that it occurs in roughly 320 and 9,400 births each year in the U.S. and between 12 million and 352.3 million births across the globe.
Severe psychosis destroys a person's ability to tell what is real
To truly understand what happens in such cases, Dr. K broke down what psychosis is.
Psychosis is not a gradual loss of self-control or an intense mood swing. It is a total, neurological hijack.
When a person enters severe psychosis, their brain loses the ability to distinguish internal hallucination from external reality.
“Your mind is literally creating things that are chasing you that you think are real,” he said before giving examples from his own experiences with patients.
“I had a patient once who jumped out of a third-storey window. He broke both of his legs but thankfully wasn’t paralyzed,” he said.
The reason why he jumped was because he was convinced “he was being chased by a demon.”
Psychosis can feel like being stuck in a horror movie, where the monsters and voices feel 100% real
“Imagine a horror movie but you’re inside it… you believe it’s real,” Dr. K said.
To the person having the psychosis, the demon is real and is actually “chasing” them, he added. “That’s what psychosis is.”
He said these are the kinds of things that could push people to do things like jump out of a window, just Lindsay, who is left paralyzed for life from the waist down.
Dr. K went on to explain that people experience different types of hallucinations, one of which is persecutory hallucinations.
“It’s a voice actually talking to you,” he said, noting how it’s more than just a voice in one’s head.
“It is someone who follows you around and constantly calls you a piece of sh**,” he explained.
“Think about the most toxic person you know, and just imagine you have AirPods in your ear and they were just constantly commentating on whatever you do,” he added.
People cannot simply “resist” the voices in their head because psychosis tricks their brain into believing they are facts
Dr. K went on to explain the another type of hallucination: command auditory hallucinations
This is when “there’s someone in your ear that’s giving you commands,” he said. “...These are like commands that sometimes people feel compelled to obey.”
In such cases, it’s not about whether people can “control” the thought. The thoughts become so real that the patient believes it’s the truth.
“The reason we hospitalize people against their will is because … It’s not even that they can’t control it, they start to believe it,” he said.
“It’s not about control, it’s about belief. Psychosis makes you believe something,” he added.
Dr. K then pulled out another experience from his younger days, where a patient began speaking to him as he passed her in the hallway.
He said she was convinced that he was her biological son, even though there was probably just a 10-year age gap between them.
“How are you doing today, son?” she asked him before saying, “You know you’re my son, right?”
“Get a DNA test. Then you’ll know,” she urged him.
As he highlighted the encounter with the woman, he explained that people experiencing psychotic delusions are completely immune to facts, evidence, or basic logic.
So, a person trapped in severe psychosis could be living in their own fabricated reality, where absurdities feel like the ultimate truth for them.
Dr. K also explained a case where one of his patients believed he was her biological son
Dr. K emphasized that this complete destruction of “agency” is what separates psychosis from almost every other psychiatric diagnosis. And this is what lies at the center of Lindsay’s case as well.
Prosecutors in Lindsay’s case have alleged that the strangling of her kids was premeditated and that she was in a lucid state of mind before the incident.
But on the other side of the argument, people believe her psychosis would have completely twisted her inner logic.
If you or someone you know is struggling with self-harm or s**c*dal ideation, help is available: International Hotlines
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